Li Bin (; born July 1956) is a former Chinese diplomat. He previously served as the

Chinese Ambassador to South Korea The Chinese Ambassador to South Korea is the official representative of the People's Republic of China to the Republic of Korea. Chinese-Korean diplomatic relations were well established before the Joseon period of Korean history. In 1882, the g ...

, during his term of that office, he gave information to the

Government of South Korea The Government of South Korea is the union government of the Republic of Korea, created by the Constitution of South Korea as the executive, legislative and judicial authority of the republic. The president acts as the head of state and is th ...

, he was placed under investigation by the

National Security Commission of the Chinese Communist Party The Central National Security Commission (CNSC; ) of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was established at the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee in November 2013, during what was considered a "major reg ...

in December 2006.

Life and career

Li was born in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

in July 1956. After graduating from

Kim Il-sung University Kim Il-sung University, founded on 1 October 1946, is the first university built in North Korea. It is located on a campus in Pyongyang, the nation's capital. Along with the main academic buildings, the campus contains 10 separate offices, 50 l ...

in 1977 he assigned to the Chinese Embassy in North Korea. In 1994 he was promoted to become the Chinese Counsellor to South Korea, a position he held until 1997. Then he was Chinese Minister-Counsellor to North Korea. After this office was terminated in October 2001, he became the

, serving until August 2005. He was deputy director of the Asian Affairs of the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China () is the first-ranked executive department of the State Council of the Chinese government, responsible for the foreign relations of the People's Republic of China. It is led ...

in August 2005, and held that office until June 2006. In June 2006, he was appointed the deputy mayor of

Weihai Weihai (), formerly called Weihaiwei (), is a prefecture-level city and major seaport in easternmost Shandong province. It borders Yantai to the west and the Yellow Sea to the east, and is the closest Chinese city to South Korea. Weihai's popula ...

. He remained in that position until December 2006.

Allegations of espionage

In 2006, Chinese officials took Li into custody for allegations of corruption. Soon after his arrest however, authorities began to allege that he had leaked state secrets to South Korean media outlets. Through a series of interrogations, Chinese authorities began to broaden their claims to say that Li had leaked state secrets to officials in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and South Korea. One South Korean journalist that was suspected to have profited off the leaks, Park Ki-sung, published a blog post that Li had not been his source. In 2007, Li was "lightly sentenced" to seven to eight years in prison on economic charges.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Bin 1956 births Kim Il Sung University alumni Living people Ambassadors of China to South Korea People's Republic of China politicians from Beijing